International terrorists behind bombings: Morocco

Policemen stand guard in front of the Casablanca Jewish cultural center, one of five sites targeted by suicide bombers who killed 41 people.

A wave of suicide bombings left 41 people dead and scores injured in Morocco's business capital Casablanca, the country's official Map news agency reported.

Ten suicide bombers were among those killed in the attacks, which looked like the work of international terrorists, Moroccan Interior Minister Mostafa Sahel told a hastily organised press conference early yesterday.

The minister said that five sites had been targeted in the string of attacks, which also left at least 60 people injured.

"These attacks bear the hallmarks of international terrorism," Mr Sahel said, adding that three Moroccan suspects had been arrested.

"Most of the victims were Moroccan," Mr Sahel said, without giving any details. ");document.write("

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He said that the worst attack was at Casablanca's Casa de Espana Hispanic cultural centre.

Among the victims were two police officers and a security guard outside the centre, Map reported.

At least three car bombs exploded, one near the Belgian consulate, another near a Jewish centre and the third at a popular hotel, as well as the attack on the Hispanic centre, Map reported.

The bodies of two suicide bombers were pulled out of the rubble of the Jewish centre in the coastal town, witnesses said.

Another suicide bomber was said to have been responsible for the blast at the Farah Maghreb hotel. A man detonated a bomb he was carrying when he was confronted by a hotel porter, a witness said.

It is believed there were a total of seven blasts in the city, most of which struck about 10pm.

They included those mentioned by Map plus three near the Corniche restaurant district.

Morocco's King Mohammed VI was being kept informed and "ordered a system for evacuating the injured to be put in place", according to Map. Ambulances were called from surrounding areas, a police source said. Police barriers were erected in the affected areas.

Western countries, alarmed by a huge increase in intercepted communications indicating that al-Qaeda-related terrorist attacks might be imminent, have put their citizens on alert in the Middle East, East Africa and South-East Asia.

Australia, the United States and Britain - which have stepped up their intelligence co-operation since the September 11, 2001, attacks in America - have issued a flurry of terrorism warnings in recent days. Other nations - such as Germany and Denmark - have followed suit.

The fears have been made all the more real by Monday's triple suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia, blamed on al-Qaeda, which killed 34 people at compounds housing Western nationals, officials say.

"There has been a definite increase in chatter over the past couple of weeks," said one US official in Washington, referring to intercepted telephone and email conversations and interrogations of terror suspects by intelligence agencies. "We are very concerned about possible attacks,"a second US official said.

"I don't know if I could characterise them as 'imminent' in the sense of the next hour or day, but there are a lot of signs that something or somethings are being planned and are coming soon," the official said.

The officials said the intercepts were gathered not only from suspected al-Qaeda operatives but also from people believed to be affiliated with the network who either operate on their own or as part of a group that shares Osama bin Laden's anti-West agenda. Since the beginning of the month, the US State Department has released regional terrorism alerts covering the Middle East, North Africa, the Gulf and East Africa to supplement an April 21 global warning.

Over the same time, the department has issued country-specific alerts for Saudi Arabia - where it has ordered all non-essential diplomats and the families of all embassy and consulate personnel to leave - as well as for Kenya and Malaysia.